A privacy screening service is a service that allows a subscriber to the privacy screening service to screen incoming calls. The privacy screening service provides information to the called party (in this case, the subscriber to the privacy screening service) that allows the subscriber to make an informed decision about whether or not to answer the call. For example, a subscriber may use a privacy screening service to block all unidentified calls from going through. Private telephone numbers are telephone numbers that block services, such as “caller ID” that would otherwise identify the caller to the called party. In telephone systems that offer private telephone numbers and a privacy screening service to its customers, calls from a private telephone number to a subscriber with the privacy screening service cannot be completed automatically, unless the caller authorizes the system to override the privacy of the caller's telephone number. The subscriber's telephone doesn't ring unless the caller provides further identifying information (e.g., telephone number, name).
More and more companies are using the telephone as a marketing tool. As a result, many of the calls received at residences and businesses are telemarketing calls. Privacy screening services on the market, such as the BellSouth Privacy Director service, provide screening when the calling party telephone number is unknown or private. However, many telemarketers are now calling from known telephone numbers, allowing them to bypass the screening services. This situation will continue to compound when a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommendation that requires telemarketers to provide a valid, or known, calling telephone number becomes effective. Some telephone subscribers do not want these sorts of calls, or simply desire additional control over incoming calls. Features currently available in privacy screening services such as selective call acceptance and selective call rejection may also provide assistance in avoiding and/or screening telephone calls from known numbers, but they are currently limited to a maximum of about five telephone numbers per subscriber.